Sumerian word or symbol for house or temple
Wall plaque showing libations by devotees and a naked priest, to a seated god and a temple.
Ur, 2500 BCE.
[1]Evolution of the word "Temple" (
Sumerian: "É") in
cuneiform, from a 2500 BCE relief in
Ur, to Assyrian cuneiform circa 600 BCE.
[2]
É (Cuneiform: 𒂍)
[3] is the
Sumerian word or symbol for
house or
temple.
The Sumerian term É.GAL (𒂍𒃲,"palace", literally "big house") denoted a city's main building. É.LUGAL (𒂍𒈗,"king's house") was used synonymously. In the texts of
Lagash, the É.GAL is the center of the
ensi's administration of the city, and the site of the city archives.
[4]
Sumerian É.GAL is the probable etymology of Semitic words for "palace, temple", such as Hebrew היכל heikhal,
[5] and Arabic هيكل haykal. It has thus been speculated that the word É originated from something akin to *hai or *ˀai, especially since the cuneiform sign È is used for /a/ in
Eblaite.
The term TEMEN (𒋼) appearing frequently after É in names of ziggurats is translated as "foundation pegs", apparently the first step in the construction process of a house; compare, for example, verses 551–561 of the account of the construction of E-ninnu:
He stretched out lines in the most perfect way; he set up (?) a sanctuary in the holy uzga. In the house, Enki drove in the foundation pegs, while
Nanshe, the daughter of Eridu, took care of the oracular messages. The mother of
Lagash, holy Gatumdug, gave birth to its bricks amid cries (?), and Bau, the lady, first-born daughter of An, sprinkled them with oil and cedar essence. En and lagar priests were detailed to the house to provide maintenance for it. The Anuna gods stood there full of admiration.
Temen has been occasionally compared to Greek
temenos "holy precinct", but the latter has a well established Indo-European etymology (from *temə- meaning to cut).
[6]
In E-temen-an-ki, "the temple of the foundation (pegs) of
heaven and
earth", temen has been taken to refer to an
axis mundi connecting earth to heaven (thus re-enforcing the
Tower of Babel connection), but the term re-appears in several other temple names, referring to their physical stability rather than, or as well as, to a mythological world axis; compare the Egyptian notion of
Djed.
List of specific temples
- E-ab-lu-a - 𒂍𒀖𒇻𒀀, (House with teeming cattle) temple to
Suen in
Urum
- E-ab-šag-a-la - 𒂍𒀊𒊮𒀀𒇲, (House which stretches over the midst of the sea) temple to
Ninmarki in
Gu-aba
- E-abzu - 𒂍𒍪𒀊 , "temple of the
abzu" (also E-engura "House of the subterranean waters") temple to
Enki in
Eridu.
- E-ad-da - 𒂍𒀜𒁕, temple to
Enlil
- E-akkil - 𒂍𒃰𒋺𒋛, (House of lamentation) temple to
Ninshubur in
Akkil
- E-am-kur-kurra - 𒂍𒆳, "temple of the lord of lands" to
Bēl in
Assur
- E-
d
ama-geštin "mother of wine"
- E-ama-lamma
- E-
da-mal, temple in
Babylon
- E-amaš-azag, "temple of the bright fold" in
Dur-ilu
-
E-ana (House of heaven) temple to
Inanna in
Uruk
- E-an-da-di-a, the ziggurat of
Akkad
- E-an-ki, "temple of heaven and earth"
- E-a-nun, temple of
Lugal-girra
- E-an-za-kar "temple of the pillar"
- E-a-ra-li "temple of the underworld"
- E-a-ra-zu-giš-tug "temple of the hearing of prayers"
- E-
das-dmaḫ "temple of the supreme god"
- E-
das-ra-tum "temple to the goddess
Ashratum"
- E-babbar (Shining house) temple to
Utu in
Larsa
- E-bara-igi-e-di "temple of wonders", ziggurat to
Dumuzi in Akkad
- E-bagara
- E-
dbau, temple to the goddess
Bau in
Lagash
- E-belit-mati "temple to the mother of the world"
- E-bur-sigsig (House with beautiful bowls) temple to
Shara in
Umma
- E-
dbur-
dsin, temple to the deified king
Bur-Sin in
Ur
- E-dam, built by
Ur-Nanshe in
Lagash
- E-dara-an-na "temple of the darkness of heaven"
- E-di-kud-kalam-ma "temple of the judge of the world"
- E-Dilmuna "temple of
Dilmun" in
Ur
- E-dim-an-na "temple of the bond of heaven", built by
Nebuchadnezzar for
Sin
- E-dim-gal-abzu in
Lagash
- E-dim-gal-kalama (House which is the great pole of the Land) temple to
Ishtaran in
Der
- E-du-azaga "temple of the brilliant shrine", to
Marduk
- E-du-kug (House of the sheer heap) in
Eridu,
Nippur
- E-dub (Storage house) temple to
Zababa in
Kish (Sumer)
-
E-dubba, scribal schools
- E-duga
- E-dumi-zi-abzu, to
Dumuzi-abzu, destroyed in the time of
Urukagina
- E-
ddun-gi, temple to the deified king
Dungi
- E-dur-gi-na "temple of the lasting abode", built by
Nebuchadnezzar
- E-
de-a, shrine to Ea (
Enki) at
Khorsabad built by
Sargon.
- E-engura (House of the subterranean waters, also "E-abzu") temple to
Enki in
Eridu
- E-ešdam-kug in
Girsu
- E-gida (Long house) temple to
Ninazu in
Enegir
- E-gud-du-shar (House with numerous perfect oxen) temple of
Ningublaga in
Ki-abrig
- E-ĝa-duda (House, chamber of the mound) temple to
Shu-zi-ana in
Nga-gi-mah
- E-ĝa-ĝiš-šua
- E-ĝalga-sud (House which spreads counsel far and wide) temple to
Bau (goddess) in
Iri-kug
- E-ĝeštug-Nisaba (House of the Wisdom of
Nisaba) in
Ur
- E-ĝipar in
Uruk
- E-ĝiškešda-kalama (The House which is the bond of the Land) temple to
Nergal in
Kutha
- E-ḫamun (The House of Harmony)
- E-ḫursaĝ (The House which is a hill) of
Shulgi in
Ur
- E-ḫuš
- E-ibe-Anu, temple to
Urash in
Dilbat
- E-igi-kalama (House which is the eye of the Land) of
Lugal-Marada/
Ninurta in
Marad
- E-igi-šu-galam
- E-igi-zi(d)-bar-ra, temple to
Ningirsu, built by
Entemena
- E-igizu-uru (House, your face is mighty) temple to
Ninshubur in
Akkil
- E-Iri-kug
- E-itida-buru
- E-kiš-nu-ĝal (House sending light to the earth (?)) temple to
Nanna in
Ur
- E-kug-nuna temple to
Inanna in
Uruk
-
E-kur "mountain temple" to
Enlil in
Nippur
- E-ku-nin-azag "temple of the brilliant goddess" in
Girsu
- E-maḫ (Great house) temple to
Shara in
Umma
- E-maḫ (Great house) temple to
Ninhursanga in
Adab.
- E-me-ur-ana (House which gathers the divine powers of heaven) temple to
Ninurta in
Nippur
- E-me-urur
- E-melem-ḫuš (House of terrifying radiance) temple to
Nuska in
Nippur
- E-mešlam, temple of
Nergal
- E-mu-maḫ (House with a great name)
- E-mud-kura, in
Ur
- E-muš (House which is the precinct) or E-mush-kalama, temple to
Lulal in
Bad-tibira
- E-namtila
- E-ni-guru
- E-nin.gara
-
E-ninnu (House of 50), temple to
Ningirsu in
Lagash
- E-a-mer, the ziggurat of E-ninnu
- E-nun, the
abzu in
Eridu
- E-nun-ana (House of the prince of heaven), temple to
Utu in
Sippar
- E-nutura
- E-puḫruma
-
E-sag-il "temple that raises its head", the temple of
Marduk in
Babylon, according to the
Enuma elish home to all the gods under the patronage of Marduk.
-
E-sara (Cuneiform: E2SAR.A) "House of the Universe" dedicated to
Inanna in
Uruk by
Ur-Nammu
- E-sikil (pure house) temple to
Ninazu in
Eshnunna
- E-sila
- E-Sirara
- E-šag-ḫula, in
Kazallu
- E-šara, in
Adab
- E-šeg-meše-du, in
Isin
- E-šenšena, to
Ninlil
- E-šerzid-guru (House clad in splendour) temple to
Inanna in
Zabala
- E-šu-me-ša (House which deals being rouge), temple to
Ninurta in
Nippur
- E-suga (Merry house)
- E-tar-sirsir
-
E-temen-anki "temple of the foundation of heaven and earth", the ziggurat to
Marduk in
Babylon
- E-temen-ni-guru, main ziggurat of
Ur
- E-tilla-maḫ
- E-Tummal (Tummal House), temple to
Ninlil in
Nippur
- E-tur-kalama
- E-uduna, built by
Amar-Suena
- E-Ulmaš, in Akkad
- E-unir (House of gaze reach) temple to
Enki in
Eridu
- E-uru-ga
- E-zagin (Lapis lazuli house), temple to
Nisaba in
Uruk
-
E-zida-temple to
Nabu
- E-zi-Kalam-ma, to
Inanna in
Zabala, built by
Hammurabi
See also
Notes
References